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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Where I Work

Now that we're empty nesters, my husband and I decided to redo our upstairs, making it more comfortable for guests. My craft stuff used to be in a corner of our bonus room, but in our redo, I decided to move it all into one of the now-spare bedrooms. I felt that if I had less space to spread out in, I might actually be able to work neater. I'm definitely more organized now, because I have the added bonus of a full closet to hold extra supplies.

So, here's my new room! This first picture is a view from when you walk into the door. Lots of the artwork and trinkets displayed here are things I've received in swaps on Craftster, or things my daughters and I made.

When I'm sitting at my desk, here's the opposite wall. Gotta have some entertainment while I'm working; currently, I'm rewatching the entire series of "Lost" on Netflix. I love the large piece of furniture pictured here. It's from Nadeau, and is made totally of mismatched reclaimed wood.

A closeup of the cubbies. This came from the Pottery Barn catalog, and I just love it! It houses several altered tins, little birds and jars of whimsies, one of my daughter's baby shoes, some books my other daughter made, and various other nicknacks.

Around the corner, there's a reproduction library card catalog holder (Target.com!) that's great for holding small supplies, and for helping display some of my swap goods:

I thought about cleaning up my desk, but in the interest of full disclosure, I thought I'd leave it in its natural state. That's pretty much what it looks like all the time. Back behind, you can see the bookshelves that hold the things I need close at hand: my scrapbook papers, glues, charms, etc. On the wall, there's art from my daughter, plus items from several friends at Craftster.

Another view of the shelves:

I love this closet! We took out the rack, and I stuffed as many of the mismatched bookshelves that used to be in my kids' rooms as I could get in there! My older daughter made the graffiti sign in high school. I know she thinks I'm crazy, but I love it. Inside the closet, on the ribbon rack, there's a piece of work from my younger daughter that won second prize in the State Reflections contest when she was in middle school.

And there you have it. Thanks so much to all my wonderful swap partners (and my girls!) for helping me decorate. I pretty much spend hours every day in this room, and I love it. Funny aside note: my husband is an engineer. He told me that if he had to work in this space he would probably have a seizure. It's a little busy for him.

Was looking up altered altoid tins and found your tutorial...thanks for sharing it! Love the new space (saw the before a few posts back). Your desk looks alot neater than mine...I never put things away as I work...and then I just want to get started when I begin working on something new, you know? Piles and piles. :) What color is that on your walls? Love it.